Our ability to navigate hard conversations and find the courage to risk deep intimacy depends on our ability to access the brain states that foster emotional connection, healing and resiliency. But when a brain has experienced relational trauma, it can easily be triggered into dysregulation, limiting our capacity for experiencing safety and intimate relationship. Fortunately, when we heal our trauma, we also get better at relationship; and when we get better at relationship, we heal our trauma—the two processes are inextricably intertwined. We’ll use clinical tape and deep discussions about the brain to help you apply this knowledge in session. This workshop will explore the neurobiology of how Relational Life Therapy works to shift the most resistant clients, help deepen equality, heal trauma within couples therapy, and harness brain states that learn new skills. You’ll discover:

• How to identify which brain states will stop your clients from using the tools you’re trying to give them
• How the brain learns and changes—and how to apply those concepts in your treatment planning
• Strategies to teach your clients to choose regulation and wise adult functioning purposefully and with ease
• How to apply memory reconsolidation to couples therapy

Juliane Taylor Shore, LMFT, LPC, is a therapist and teacher of interpersonal neurobiology.